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Russel Howard
Russell Joseph Howard (born 23 March 1980)[1] is an English comedian, presenter and actor, best known for his shows Russell Howard's Good News and Russell Howard's Stand Up Central, and was a permanent panelist on Mock The Week. He won "Best Compère" at the 2006 Chortle Awards and was nominated for an if.comedy award for his 2006 Edinburgh Festival Fringe show, Wandering. Career http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Russell_Howard&action=edit&section=2 edit TV and radio work In 2004 he was commissioned by BBC Radio 1 to write and perform on the comedy series, The Milk Run and he has also appeared on the shows Banter, hosted by Andrew Collins, and Political Animal for BBC Radio 4.[3] He was a regular on British topical panel show Mock the Week. He has also made appearances on 8 Out Of 10 Cats, Would I Lie To You?, Live At The Apollo, The Secret Policeman's Ball 2008, Law of the Playground and Never Mind the Buzzcocks (Series 18, Episode 2 and Series 20, Episode 4).[4] He was one of several comedians picked as the best comedy talent from the 2005 Edinburgh Festival Fringe that recorded 10–15-minute spots for the 'Edinburgh and Beyond show' which was aired on Paramount Comedy 1 in the autumn of 2006.[5] The show was filmed at The Bloomsbury Theatre. From 2009 he took over as compère of this show from Al Murray.[6] From November 2006 to July 2008, Russell co-hosted The Russell Howard Show[7] on BBC 6 Music with fellow comedian Jon Richardson in a Sunday morning slot previously hosted by Russell Brand. The show continued to air, without Howard, until March 2010. He has since explained that his main reason for leaving the show was that he finds radio "really restrictive" and "I feed off the audience as a performer, but you can't gauge a reaction on the radio."[8][9] Russell was commissioned to make a comedy show called Russell Howard's Good News, aimed at under-25s, for BBC Three, the first episode aired on 22 October 2009 and ran for seven episodes as well as a "Best Of" show and a Christmas Special. It went on to become BBC Three’s highest ever rating entertainment series.[10][11] In the show, he gave his take on the week's major news stories, also giving some attention to some of the more light-hearted stories of the week. It has been confirmed that two more series of the show have been commissioned, with the second series starting on March 25, 2010.[12] A fourth series began on 24 March 2011 on BBC3. In April 2015, Howard presented Russell Howard's Stand Up Central on Comedy Central which featured him and two other guest comedians peforming in front of a live audience. The programme also featured Howard answering questions from either the audience or social media. In December 2015, Howard made his acting debut in BBC Two's one-off comedy-drama A Gert Lush Christmas, which he also co-wrote. In the programme, Howard played Dan Colman who takes his girlfriend to meet his family in Bristol for Christmas. http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Russell_Howard&action=edit&section=3 edit Charity work He appeared at Friends of the Earth's LIVEstock 1993 comedy and music event at the Hammersmith Apollo in support of the green campaign group's Food Chain Campaign for planet-friendly farming, in 12 November 2009. For Sport Relief 2010 he took part in the BT Sport Relief Million Pound Bike Ride, with David Walliams, Jimmy Carr, Fearne Cotton, Miranda Hart, Patrick Kielty, and Davina McCall. They cycled from John O'Groats in Scotland to Land's End in 4 days trying to raise 1 million pounds.[13] In April 2010, Howard ran the Virgin London Marathon for the first time with both his brother and sister, to raise money for the National Society for Epilepsy – a condition from which his brother suffers. He completed the 26 mile course in 4 hours and 15 minutes, beating his target time of 5 hours. Sponsorship has raised over £7,000 to date.[14] http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Russell_Howard&action=edit&section=4 edit Live comedy A show from his 2007 Adventures tour was released on DVD on 17 November 2008,[15] under the title "Russell Howard Live". The show on the DVD was recorded at The Bloomsbury Theatre.[16] Howard started touring his show Dingledodies in September 2008 and played various dates through to December. Due to overwhelming demand he further extended the tour twice into 2009. It sold in excess of 125,000 tickets,[17] including three sell-out shows at the Hammersmith Apollo as well as several large arenas such as Wembley Arena and Manchester's MEN Arena. The DVD of this tour was released on 9 November 2009[18] and features a recording of the show from the Brighton Dome.[17] He was named "Best Theatre Show" at the 2009 Chortle Comedy Awards.[19] Howard performed 10 UK dates between 11 and 20 December 2009 for his "Big Rooms and Belly Laughs" tour.[20] In 2011 the far right English Defence League threatened to picket one of his live gigs in retaliation at material poking fun at them in one of his TV performances.[21] In 2011, Howard had a third tour titled Right Here Right Now. The tour sold out in days and was extended twice, with new dates in December 2011 announced on 3 May 2011. In 2014, Howard did his fourth tour titled Wonderbox, where he toured the UK, USA, Australia and New Zealand. In 2015 and 2016, Howard hosted Russell Howard's Stand Up Central on Comedy Central, where he and two guest comedians would perform stand up in front of a live audience at Camden's Electric Ballroom. Howard would also answer questions from a box on the stage. In 2016, Howard alongside his mother Ninette starred in a travel series titled Russell Howard & Mum: USA Road Trip, where the two would travel America and meet different people in different states. A second series will air in 2017. As of February 2017, Howard is on his fifth tour Round the World, where he will travel the UK, USA, Canada, Europe, Australia and New Zealand. In November 2016, it was announced that Howard had signed a two year deal with Sky and will present a 14 part weekly series on Sky 1 called The Russell Howard Hour later in 2017. http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Russell_Howard&action=edit&section=5 edit Personal life Russell Joseph Howard, was born on 23 March 1980 in Bristol to David Howard and Ninette Veale. Russell has two younger siblings, twins, Kerry; an actress, and Daniel (born 24 March 1982)[22]; a Systems analyst and a sufferer of epilepsy,[23] a fact which Russell often references during his act. Russell grew up in Bristol. Russell was educated at Flitwick Lower School, Bedford Modern School which he attended for a year at the age of 8, Perins School and Alton College in Hampshire, then at the University of the West of England in Bristol, where he studied economics in the end attaining a 2:1. It was reported in The Independent and News Of The World that he earnt £4 million in 2009 alone[24], but he categorises these reports as false[25]. http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Russell_Howard&action=edit&section=6 edit Television *''Never Mind the Buzzcocks'' BBC 2 (2006) *''Mock The Week'' BBC 2 (2006–2010) *''Never Mind the Buzzcocks'' BBC 2 (2007) *''Rob Brydon's Annually Retentive'' BBC Three (2007) *''Would I Lie To You?'' BBC 1 (2007) *''Live at the Apollo'' BBC 1 (2007) *''Law of the Playground'' Channel 4 (2008) *''The Secret Policeman's Ball 2008'' Channel 4 (2008) *''8 out of 10 Cats'' Channel 4 (2008) *''Live at the Apollo'' BBC 1 (2009) *''Russell Howard's Good News'' BBC Three/Two (2009–2015) *'Russell Howard's Stand Up Central' Comedy Central UK (2015-2016) *'A Gert Lush Christmas' BBC Two (2015) *'Russell Howard & Mum:.USA Road Trip' Comedy Central UK (2016-) *'The Russell Howard Hour' Sky 1 (2017) http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Russell_Howard&action=edit&section=7 edit Radio *''The Milk Run'' BBC Radio 1 (2004) *''Political Animal'' BBC Radio 4 (2004) *''Banter'' BBC Radio 4 (2005) *''The Russell Howard Show'' BBC 6 Music (2006–2008) http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Russell_Howard&action=edit&section=8 edit Writing *''The Milk Run'' BBC Radio 1 (2004)